The invention relates to an oil combatting vessel and a method for controlling oil damages with a vessel which has at least a middle hull, a first side hull, and a second side hull.
Oil, which has been spilled from vessels or oil refineries, may cause environmental damages. The oil damage may occur in an environment where a sea, lake or river is covered by an ice cover or ice blocks. Collecting the spilled oil from among the ice in such circumstances is difficult.
Publication EP1439119A1 presents a three-hulled vessel, between the middle hull and side hulls of which there are oil collecting devices.
Publication WO2007054607 presents a three-hulled vessel, which is suitable for breaking ice.
Publication U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,765 presents an oil separating apparatus, which has a vibrating screen, attachable to the vessel, for pushing ice blocks underneath the water surface. The oil is separated from the ice blocks, which have been pushed down, by vibrating the screen against the ice blocks. The screen may be vibrated for example with the aid of an asymmetric mass or a connecting rod.
The apparatus according to publication U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,765 must be dimensioned to be heavy, so that it will withstand, without breaking, the stress forces caused by the ice, especially when operating beside a one-hulled vessel. The screens according to publication U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,765 have so far had a basal area of a few square meters. A powerful vibrating machinery is needed for moving a large and heavy screen. Since the size of the vibrating screen is limited, the vibrating machinery must be able to move the heavy screen with such an amplitude and frequency, which significantly intensifies the separation of the oil from the ice blocks. The vibration of the screen may form small ice blocks and ice sludge, which, when they have risen to the water surface through the screen, may make the collecting of oil more difficult.